How to Switch from Blogger to WordPress without Losing Google Rankings

Do you want to migrate your blog from Blogger to WordPress? While Blogger is a neat free tool to start blogging, many beginners soon realize its limitations, and they want to switch to WordPress to get access to more powerful features. In this article, we will show you how to properly switch from Blogger to WordPress without losing Google rankings.

Why Move From Blogger to WordPress?

However, many beginners soon realize that there are a lot of limitations on what they can do with their free Blogger blog.

WordPress, on the other hand, gives you complete ownership of your website. It also allows you to add necessary features to grow and monetize your blog. We have created a detailed side-by-side comparison of WordPress vs Blogger.

It’s important to note that when we say WordPress, we are talking about self-hosted WordPress.org which should NOT be confused with WordPress.com which is a hosted solution that has it’s own limitations. For details, see our article on the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

WordPress.org is the popular “WordPress” platform that you have likely heard about because it powers 31% of all websites on the internet.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to properly move from Blogger to WordPress while preserving your Google search rankings and website traffic.

Here are the exact steps that we will use to transfer from Blogger to WordPress:

Step 0. Before You Start

For a quick primer, a domain name is your website’s address that people type to get to your blog, and web hosting is where your website files are stored. Both of these are a MUST HAVE to create any type of blog / website.

With that said, we recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world, and they are an officially recommended WordPress hosting partner.

Because WPBeginner is the largest WordPress resource site, they have agreed to offer our readers a free domain name and a 60% discount on hosting. Basically, you can get started for just $2.75 per month.

After you have installed WordPress, it is time to move your content from Blogger to WordPress.

Bonus Free Offer: Since a lot of you asked for this, we are now offering free Blogger to WordPress migration service as part of our free WordPress blog setup service. This means one of our expert team member will do the entire migration for you (100% free). Yes, you can literally switch from Blogger to WordPress without any risk.

Note: Our free blogger migration service is for smaller blogs that have less than 1000 blog posts. We can offer migration service for larger blogger sites, but that will be a paid service.

However if you are someone who likes learning and doing things yourself, then you can follow our step by step tutorial below.

Step 1. Export Your Blogger Blog

The first thing you need to do is export your Blogger blog’s content. You can do this by logging into your Blogger dashboard and going to Settings » Other page. Under the ‘Import & back up’ section, you need to click on the ‘Back up Content’ button.

This will bring up a popup where you need to click on the ‘Save to your computer’ button.

Your Blogger blog’s content will be downloaded to your computer in an XML file. Once the download is complete, it is time to import your Blogger content into your WordPress site.

Step 2. Import Blogger to WordPress

To start importing your Blogger site into WordPress, you need to login to your WordPress admin area and visit Tools » Import. On the Import page, go ahead and click on the ‘Install Now’ link below Blogger.

WordPress will now download and install the Blogger Importer plugin for you. Once it is finished installing, you would need to click on the ‘Run Importer’ link to continue.

On the Import Blogger screen, WordPress will ask you to upload the XML file. This is the file that you downloaded in Step 1.

Simply click on the choose file button and upload the XML file you downloaded earlier. Next, you need to click on the Upload file and import button to continue.

WordPress will now upload the import file. If your import file is too large, then you may see an error that your file size is too large. In this case, you would need to increase your maximum file upload limit. If your file is small, then you won’t see any errors.

Next, you will be asked to assign posts to an author. If you had multiple authors on your Blogger blog, then you can create a new user account for each author. You can also assign these posts to existing authors on your WordPress site.

After making your selection, click on the submit button to continue.

WordPress will now import all content from the Blogger export file to your WordPress site. You can view the content by visiting Posts » All Posts page.

Step 3. Setting up Permalinks

Permalinks is the term used for URL structure of individual pages. WordPress comes with a feature that allows you to set up SEO friendly URL structure. Since you are importing content from Blogger, you need your URL structure to be as close to your Blogger URL structure as possible.

To set permalinks, you need to go to Settings » Permalinks screen in your WordPress dashboard and choose the custom structure option. After that, you need to add the following text in the box next to the custom structure field.

/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html

This permalink structure makes your blog posts URLs similar to the URLs on your old Blogger blog.

However, sometimes your blog post URL also known as slug in WordPress will not match the slugs used by Blogger.

After saving the code, you just need to visit any page on your WordPress site to trigger this script.

Note: After the script has run, don’t forget to delete it from your functions.php file because it only needs to run once.

Bonus Free Offer: Don’t want to deal with code? We have got you covered. Since a lot of you asked for this, we are now offering free Blogger to WordPress migration service as part of our free WordPress blog setup service. This means one of our expert team member will do the entire migration for you (100% free). Yes, you can literally switch from Blogger to WordPress without any risk.

Step 4. Setup Redirects from Blogger to WordPress

The most important step in moving any website is to setup proper redirection, so you don’t lose any existing traffic or SEO rankings.

The crucial part of the redirection is to make sure that your users land on exactly the same page on the new site which they were trying to access on the old site. At the same time, we also need to ensure that search engines understand that your website is moved to this new location.

Step 5. Moving Other Content from Blogger to WordPress

In this step, we will move other remaining content from Blogger to WordPress. This may require some manual work depending on the settings / content of your blog.

1. Moving pages from Blogger to WordPress

WordPress’ Blogger importer tool only import posts from Blogger and ignores pages. To move your pages into WordPress, you will have to edit each page in your blogger blog, copy its contents, and then manually create a page in WordPress.

If you’re looking for a specific widget that you don’t see in WordPress by default, then you likely need a WordPress plugin. You can search WPBeginner’s best WordPress plugin category to find the functionality that you’re looking for.

3. RSS Feeds ‘

Search engines and users who subscribed to your blog posts via RSS feeds will still be able to find your blog. However, they will not get any new content.

To fix this, you need to visit Settings » Other page under your Blogger account. Next, you need to click on the ‘Add’ link next to Post Feed Redirect URL and add your WordPress feed.

Your WordPress feed URL will look like this:

http://yoursite.com/feed

Step 6. Things to do After Migrating from Blogger to WordPress

Now that you have successfully moved your Blogger blog to WordPress, let’s take a look at what else you can do to improve your blog.

639 Comments

I have a related question. I’m starting a new blog and I’m using the Example.wordpress.com url for now. If I get more hits, then I’ll buy the domain example.com… if I do that, will I lose my rankings? because example.worpdress.com/example1 will now be example.com/example1

Thank you very much for this detailed description. I could manage to do this with my blogger site, now it is functioning on word press. However, I have a question. What happens to my Google Search Console account? I mean as the posts from the old blog are redirected to the new site on wordpress, how will this all show on Search Console? Do I have to add my new domain to search console as a new site was created or just should I stick to monitoring the old blog or both? I hope you see my point.

Sorry, there has been an error.
File is empty. Please upload something more substantial. This error could also be caused by uploads being disabled in your php.ini or by post_max_size being defined as smaller than upload_max_filesize in php.ini.

i have set redirections from blogspot to my new website on wordpress and everything went very well. All my posts are redirected.

There is only one thing and i can not figure out what have i done wrong. After a week, google indexed new titles which are on wordpress, but not links of new domain. I have check google temporary memory and it looks that google thinks that my new wordpress site is on blogspot link. I have checked server header response and it gives me 200 response for blogspot link and not 301 response. When i click on blogspot link, it redirects me on new domain but header response is 200. Can you help me?

We are not sure about Adsense earnings. However, having a self-hosted blog allows you the flexibility to grow your blog with limitless possibilities. You can diversify your blog’s revenue sources and will be able to explore many other ways to monetize your content.

Hi there, I have a question about website redirection. I moved from Blogger Custom Domain to WordPress.

I put that code in functions.php file but links weren’t redirecting. I had changed permalink too. The reason maybe is Blogger shorts the post name like if a post name is “A B C D E F G H”, blogger changes to “A B C D E” in url however WordPress doesn’t. So is there any solution? Am I doing wrong anything?

So I am using Smart 404 for now which redirects most of wrong urls to correct one.

We used this article to switch from blogger to WP over a year ago. Everything went well, but now I’m cleaning up plugins. Do I need to keep the Blogger 301 Redirect plugin active and installed? Or can I delete it now that everything’s done?

Check your Google Analytics reports to see if you are still getting visitors from blogger. If you are then, there is no harm in keeping the plugin activated. If there are not many users coming from blogger anymore, then you can safely turn it off.

Hi @wpbeginner support, you have written a wonderful article. I own a job portal site on blogger and am already using a custom domain name on my site. Please is there a way out for me? Considering that am already using a custom domain name registered with godaddy. Please i need your assistance thanks

I recently made the switch from blogger to WordPress. Thanks to your tutorial, it appears to have gone well! I did notice recently though that the redirect does not work while mobile. While on my desktop if I click a Pinterest link that I had previously created, it will redirect to my new WordPress site, but once mobile, it is still taking people to my blogger site. Any tips for fixing this? Thanks!

When I shift my blog to wordpress it done nicely but what I notice that on my each blog there is a image first and then blog is starting and when i am editing this post it is not showing the images in the edit mode.

HELLO I am stuck I keep getting this error
Have you ever heard of this?
Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/welcomet1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/blogger-importer/blogger-importer.php on line 227

Hi! I just recently switched from blogger to wordpress and truly appreciate your site for all its helpful information. I’ve used it quite a bit! I’m at this point now of setting the redirects. I did all of the steps above but when you click on an old link (from blogger), it takes you to my “new” WP site but it’s a 404 page. Not a 301. Why is it not working and how come it doesn’t take them directly to the correct post? I thought that was what this tut was for -no? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I switch from wordpress to blogger but it was terrible for me. I want again to switch on blogger. Will you please help me to switching from wordpress to blogger with all data. Also please switch domain name from wordpress to blogger.

This post have good information and a list of all the activity with good explanation. I started a blog years ago and stopped after maybe a year. I purchased a domain and I still own it. Now I’m ready to start blogging again and have decided to go with WordPress instead. However, the entire design is crap.

Hi WPBeginner team. I’m trying to migrate from blogger to WordPress. I already looked at the description of the blogger importer.And it says there that it cannot import the theme/template from blogger to WordPress. I know it’s kind of silly to ask, but is there a way that this limitation could be overcome? Such that when I’m migrating from blogger to WordPress, the template is also migrated?
Thank you.

Unfortunately, this will not be possible. Blogger and WordPress use totally different templating systems. However, if you know enough HTML and CSS then you can try to replicate the looks of your old blogger website in a WordPress theme. You can also hire professionals who can transform a WordPress theme to look similar to your old blogger blog.

Blogger is one of the best blogging platforms. But sooner or later you need to migrate from blogger to WordPress. If you want to build your authority on your blog then WordPress is the best choice. But I think blogger is better for the newbies who just starting. Your article will be helpful for those who want to shift from blogger to WordPress. Thanks for your article.

Thank you for the article it helped me to complete my migration. However, all of my images didn’t come over and my pages didn’t come over. I’ve tried multiple plugins for my images including what you suggeted and have come to the conclusion I will just have to insert them manually. But, I really do need my pages and I didn’t see anything in your article referencing pages. Also, Any ideas since the Blogger Importer plugin specifically says it does not import pages?

Import Blogger
Sorry, there has been an error.
File is empty. Please upload something more substantial. This error could also be caused by uploads being disabled in your php.ini or by post_max_size being defined as smaller than upload_max_filesize in php.ini.

I successfully moved my Blogger site to WordPress, redirect, everything is working! Except that some posts point successfully to their WordPress counterpart, some just redirect to my main page! I have no idea why some worked and some didn’t…is there a way to fix this?

I started a blog years ago and stopped after maybe a year. I purchased a domain and I still own it. Now I’m ready to start blogging again and have decided to go with WordPress instead. However, the entire design is crap. Therefore, my question to you is, when I migrate from Blogger to WordPress using your guide won’t that same design come over? If so, does that mean my initial step after getting a web host be to pick a them and install to WordPress or do I do that after I move from Blogger to WordPress? I want to keep the post. But, definitely not the design! I love this article and found it incredibly informative.

Thanks for this detailed article. Helped me to rectify some issues smoothly. Still, I couldn’t paste redirection code snippet to WordPress. Can you please help me?

I am getting this warning:

“Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/username/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mysitename-plugin/mysitename-plugin.php:44) in /home/username/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wpclef/includes/lib/wp-session/class-wp-session.php on line 130”
I removed the code seeing error still got the same warning. Site plug in is deactivated now.

I’m heavily considering making the switch to WordPress. However, I already have a custom domain name purchased and in use. Do I just skip the first section about purchasing a self hosted domain, or do I have to switch domain hosts? My current domain name is through easyDNS. (PS they kind of suck – not user friendly at all!)

I’m glad to hear the steps worked for you. At my end it seems I am getting something wrong. I followed the steps and imported my blog. And when I click on View Blog on Blogger it goes to my new WordPress blog which is good. However when I click on a post from Blogger it gives me a ‘page not found’ on the WordPress blog. I can’t seem to figure out what I am missing. Shouldn’t the post be redirecting to the one on the WordPress blog? If you can guess what’s causing this I’ll appreciate it.

Thanks for the very helpful guide. I’m wondering if there is a way to do this while maintaining a more SEO friendly URL structure within wordpress. I want my blogspot posts to redirect properly, but I’d like them to redirect to example.com/my-blog-post rather than example.com/2016/09/my-blog-post. I think perhaps a change could be made to the PHP code added to functions.php to make this work but I’m not sure how.

Thank you! I can’t say how many times I came back to this page in the last week and followed it step by step, very clear instructions! I noticed that the redirect doesn’t work from my iphone though it works beautifully from laptop – mobile still goes to my blogspot. Is there something more I need to do to get it to work on mobile?

If you have switched to the classic template then you will see a button to Upgrade template. Click on this button and Blogspot will start using the new template format. It will show you a preview of how your site will look on Desktop and how it will look on mobile.

Under the mobile column, click on the gear icon. This will bring up a popup. Select ‘No. Show desktop template on mobile devices’ option and then click on the save button.

This saved my life!!! I was so lost trying to figure out how to move from blogger to wordpress and this tutorial made everything so easy! I followed along with the video step by step. Thank you so much!!

I’m clutching at straws here, so hoping that you can help.
The Blogger xml file was about 42Mb – so I had BlueHost increase it to 64Mb. But ever since that happened, when I run the Blogger Import tool, the upload goes to 100% alright. However, the next step – where you get to choose the authors – that never appears. All I get is the heading that says ‘Import Blogger’. I’ve tried on different browsers, different laptops – no go.

And I can’t move forward. Spoke to Bluehost, who said they’ll look into it, but no go since that.
I tried a smaller test xml file form an old blogger id that I had, and that uploads fine. So I reckon it has something to do with the time out or something. But of course, I’m not sure.

Do you have any suggestions?
Would really appreciate some help, if you could spare the time.

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WPBeginner is a free WordPress resource site for Beginners. WPBeginner was founded in July 2009 by Syed Balkhi. The main goal of this site is to provide quality tips, tricks, hacks, and other WordPress resources that allows WordPress beginners to improve their site(s).